The Malik Report

"I am not a goal scorer,” he said. “I am a hockey player. I never look for goals. I look to play good and then people score or I do."

Franzen is looking forward to the new competition in the Eastern Conference.

"It will be a lot of new faces and you've got to learn how those teams play, and it's going to be different, probably take a while before you get to know everyone," said Franzen. "You have to be extremely focused and you've got to come prepared because we've played so many years (in the Western Conference) and you pretty much know every guy on those teams."

Franzen plans to make himself scarce once the HBO 24/7 cameras come out prior to the Winter Classic: "I'll try to hide somewhere. I really don't like being in front of the camera."

Thank you for demonstrating the absence of rationality in the center your argument.

The notion that a guy who scores 32 per 82 isn’t a goal scorer is absurd. It is absurd that Franzen says it, and it’s absurd you believe it.

In order for that asinine standard to have any meaning you’d have to set the cutoff somewhere sufficiently above 32 per 82 to make it noteworthy. I mean, there’s a pretty high bar for stupid statements regarding Franzen here, but trying to say he’s not a goalscorer at 32/82 but someone at 35/82 was, well, that’d be an accomplishment even here.

The standard for ‘goalscorer’ would have to be 38-40/82, at least. Pretty much half a goal a game. There are rarely years where 8 guys hit .45-.5 goals a game.

In other words, it’s a silly, unrealistic standard that falls apart under even the most cursory analysis.

To say that Zetterberg, Datsyuk OR Franzen aren’t goal scorers is absurd.

That depends on what you mean with “goal scorer”.

It might be my soccer background*, but I see goal scorer as someone whose main characteristic is scoring goals. After all, in a way, all players are goals corers.

If someone asks you to define Datsyuk and Zetterberg in two ways, “goal scorer” will come behind “two-way forward” or “playmaker”. Franzén might have “(pseudo-)power-forward” first (and “lazy motherfucher” second).

(*Messi might score a whole bunch of goals, but that’s not the only reason he’s Messi. Now take Balotelli, whose only job is to shoot from wherever. That’s a goal scorer)

I still don’t know why you compared Franzén to Datsyuk and Zetterberg, since they are not goalscorers too, but whatever.

This is the point you shy away from engaging on, though. If Franzen at 32 per 82 isn’t a goalscorer… what level of production do you require in order to call someone a goalscorer. How many people per year meet your standard of ‘goalscoring’?

You realize there are going to be, at most, like 8 guys who meet that standard, right? What’s an ‘elite goalscorer’, then? Are there only 1 or 2 elite goalscorer’s a year?

Any standard for ‘goalscorer’ that can’t include a guy who goes 32/82 is silly.

Applying that same standard to assists, it’d be like saying someone who has 60 assists per 82 games isn’t a playmaker.

What I’m seeing is that you’re just a guy who doesn’t like Franzen, so your criticism of him being a ‘goalscorer’ or not isn’t a function of analysis, it’s a function of bias. You’re just engaging in ephemeral semantic shenanigans because you don’t want to give him credit for anything positive, even the things he actually does, because those accomplishments conflict with your biased opinion of him.

Now that I know that’s what it is, bias instead of rational analysis… hey, have a blast with that.

Any standard for ‘goalscorer’ that can’t include a guy who goes 32/82 is silly.

Did you read what I said? I consider goal scorers players whose main job is to score goals. Heck, I forgot about Samuelsson, but I consider him a goal scorer if only because that’s the only good aspect of his game. On that same vein, I consider Brunner a goal scorer.

That’s why I say Datsyuk and Zetterberg aren’t goal scorers. Sure, they are on a literal sense, but they are complete players who do much more than score goals.

What I’m seeing is that you’re just a guy who doesn’t like Franzen, so your criticism of him being a ‘goalscorer’ or not isn’t a function of analysis, it’s a function of bias. You’re just engaging in ephemeral semantic shenanigans because you don’t want to give him credit for anything positive, even the things he actually does, because those accomplishments conflict with your biased opinion of him.

I defend Franzén all the time. I was the one who looked upo his stats am comparable cap hits to show how his production is coming on a very cheap salary. I like the guy, most of the time.

I do give credit for the postitive stuff he brings, and that’s exactly what I’m saying dammit. The “positive stuff he brings” is not just goals, it’s more than that, hence the “not a goal scorer” thing.

The debate is not whether Franzen is a goal-scorer. The debate is really if he’s a top-line goal-scorer or a 2nd line goalscorer. The people who want him to be a top-line one are disappointed at “only” 30.

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